Day 4 at Primavera Sound: Let the Festival shake

Folk-rock brilliance for a great Saturday at Primavera Sound!

The Good
Small band, great attitude. Must be hard to play in one of the smallest stages of the Festival, at the time the football match starts. But Deep Sea Arcade showed attitude, passion and upbeat melodies to forget about Messi for a while easily.
Stadium indie-folk: The Tallest Man on Earth proved that he is not only a man of talents, but also a great showman, and helped by a (surprisingly) enthusiast crowd, the Swedish gave us a great show. Later in the afternoon, Fleet Foxes doubled down and proved how uplifting is their music, I would say that even contagious: the songs from "Helplessness Blues", "Mykonos", "Your Protector" or "White Winter Hymn" shimmered on the open spaces, fuelled by the passionate sing-alongs of a pleased audience

The Bad
Warpaint: I was really looking forward to their concert....but they ruined it with an awful sounding, really harming for the ears and killing the amalgamation of guitars and harmonies that makes their psychedelic-rock so enjoyable. Only at considerable distance from the stage the gig was audible. Missed opportunity.

The Queen
PJ Harvey. The GREAT, EXTRAORDINARY PJ Harvey I should say. What a fantastic performance yesterday night. I had doubts about how the songs of "Let England Shake" were going to sound live, particularly at the main stage of the Festival, but by the time she played "The Words that Maketh Murder" it was clear the night was going to be unforgettable. A flawless, intense and enormous gig, with brutal performances of "Bitter Branches", "In the Dark Places", or classic renditions of "The Sky Lit Up" or "Big Exit" (to name a few). Truly amazing.

"The Colour of the Earth", PJ Harvey a cappella

Ms Polly Jean Harvey keeps challenging us. Not only she has released the best album of her career, "Let England Shake", and delivered a powerful true statement about our world, even more poignant now that we are, involved in another war, but she continues to strike us with audacious videos. Directed by war photographer Seamus Murphy, "The Colour of the Earth" is a superb one. A compelling a cappella interpretation, leaving you no escape but to hear what they are singing. And it is definitely worth the hearing. The backbones of a mesmerizing song.



The colour of the earth that day/ It was dull and browny red/The colour of blood, I'd say

"Let England Shake", PJ Harvey's masterpiece

Let England Shake - PJ Harvey
NME gave the album a perfect ten. The average metascore on Metacritic (a website that summarizes all reviews made) rates the record with a phenomenal 88 (based on 35 critics right now). Its rewarding to see, for once, the majority of the "music scene" is recognizing the value of an album and an artist that restores the devalued idea that art (music in this case) should be important, should be meaningful.

"Let England Shake" its not just a new reinvention of Polly Jean Harvey, someone that simply deserves to be considered among the most important female artists music history has, due to her constant capacity of challenging herself while she creates a language of her own. Its also a reinvention of folk, connecting the traditional -"The Colour of the Earth", "On Battleship Hill"-, with the XXI Century -"Written on the Forehead"- a sound as rich as unique taken it as a whole. But its not just about what it means for a music genre. Far from it.

As the excellent review of Mike Williams on the aforementioned weekly music magazine says, on "Let England Shake" PJ declares herself as a "political animal". But she's not doing it by overexposing her opinions and sharing her vision about the current state of the world affairs. No, she does it by creating characters, stories and situations in her songs, going from a fictional individual to a recognisable universe of death, war and desolation. She brings us the past -Gallipoli- to unify it with the present -Iraq, Afghanistan- because she's not protesting against any particular crime or injustice -as all the wars are- she's revealing that England, and the whole world, has been making the same mistakes, committing the same atrocities, making violence a common pattern of world history. Take a look at news today, please.

To highlight the best moments of this record is a hard task. For me would be the desperate pledge of "What if take my problem to the United Nations?" in "The Words that Maketh Murder", the knock-out ending of "In the Dark Places", the poignant lyrics of "The Glorious Land" or the apocalyptic battleground described on "Bitter Branches". But even in the "riskier" moments -"England" goes a bit too far for my taste in the way she sings, or the reggae sampler in "Written in the Forehead"- is the record as a whole that works, is the enduring and compelling experience that "Let England Shake" provides to the listener. A genuine -and much needed- masterpiece.

SCORE: 9/10
The link to my article (in Spanish) reviewing the record, from the website I collaborate with: 
"Let England Shake", la guerra según PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey is back... "Let England Shake" revealed!

Only a week for "Let England Shake" to reach the stores. But before February 14th arrives, we can listen to Polly Jean's 8th album in its entirety, just by clicking here. A review will follow shortly, but the initial impression is that we are in front of a unique, very special and really powerful record, from an artist always eager to reinvent and express herself. Can't wait to see her live at Primavera Sound...




And as bonus, here's the video from one of her new songs... Enjoy!